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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23311867">我心则烈（My Heart In Flames）</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/axcheronferry/pseuds/axcheronferry'>axcheronferry</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Firecest, Ozai's Angels - Freeform, Sibling Incest, i dont know how to say 站街 in english</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 14:47:10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Explicit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Rape/Non-Con, Underage</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,215</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23311867</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/axcheronferry/pseuds/axcheronferry</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The reason for this article is a popular challenge on the Chinese Internet: "Make your favourite character a streetwalker. "</p>
<p>To sum up the fic in one sentence, that would be "Azula was a streetwalker. "</p>
<p>A few changes were made due to my understanding of Firecest,<br/>Therefore Azula might not be the streetwalker.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Azula &amp; Zuko (Avatar), Azula/Zuko (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>20</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>35</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>我心则烈（My Heart In Flames）</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">


        <li>
            A translation of

            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23172469">我心则烈</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/axcheronferry/pseuds/axcheronferry">axcheronferry</a>.
        </li>

    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I don’t know how to write porn. </p>
<p>The reason of the Explicit rating is that they are both underage and this is an incest ship. </p>
<p>The English version is mostly done under the help of online translator and I apologise in advance for the grammar mistakes and Chienglish expressions.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The city had its rules.</p>
<p>The Upper Ring was all fancy, suits and ties, laces and diamonds, even a beggar was of dignity. The Middle Ring was decent, to say at least; people had enough clothes and food, and the streets were always clean.</p>
<p>However, the story was completely different here in the Lower Ring, or in their words, ‘Low Nest’. There were men and women, very naked, on the street selling themselves. Prostitution was a common thing; there was no different from eating and breathing. If one walked a bit deeper into the last ring, to the desolate corner of the subway, they can see many juveniles squatting on the side of the road, wearing their school uniforms. Those kids were also trading their flesh and pleasure, to make ends meet, or to prepare for the bright future career. Everyone walking by would be flirted with by those.</p>
<p>The buyers, of course, were from places other than the Lower Ring. They were happy to come and they had fun in this place of ritual destruction and revelry and play dumb about the rotten situation. Although occasionally there were civilian politicians imposing policies that would enable the Lowerer to live the life of the Middle Ring, nothing really changed.</p>
<p>Hypocrisy and decay, the Upper Ring and the Lower Ring. There no way people could change it.</p>
<p>The people of the Upper Ring were contemptuous of the Lower Ring, but also a little afraid, which was the reason why Zuko was so flustered. He had just finished a day of training and was so tired that he went straight to sleep as soon as he got on the subway. He always wanted to be the mayor one day and changed the appearance of the city, and he had signed up for a tour to the Lower Ring; therefore, his metro card, registered in advance, all the way through send the sleeping beauty into the wolf’s den.</p>
<p>By the time he woke up, he was at the end of the subway line. It was quite late; Zuko subconsciously checked if there was anything missing, only to find that his bag was turned inside out, and he had nothing except for an empty subway card. Everything worth of some money was gone. The worst part was that he couldn't even call home after the sun went down to ask his mother and stepfather to arrange things for him to return to the Upper Ring.</p>
<p>He knew how terrible it was because long time ago he was also one of the Lower Ring citizens. Zuko, along with his parents and a sister, used to live near the Middle Ring, ‘the upper Lower’. Ursa was a rich lady of the Upper Ring, married to love with a sacred heart, but this was not the proper place for her. When Zuko was fourteen-year-old, Ursa brought him and ran back to the Upper Ring. She found her soul in the Upper Ring, and she put it in Zuko's body, making him a decent Upper Ring man.</p>
<p>Not before long, Ursa fall in love with her teenage lover again and get married, which gave Zuko a younger step-sister. Kiyi was twelve years old, but she was nothing like his other twelve-year-old sister he remembered. Ursa looked like as if she had cast a spell on herself -- seemingly oblivious to the life on the Lower Ring -- and he was pretty much the same. Except that Zuko still dreamed about that little monster who knocked on his door in the middle of the night. He promised his sister that he would come back and pick her up, but by now he could not even remember her name anymore. He could not even remember her face either. When the train he and Ursa took were leaving the Lower Ring, he leaned against the window and stared out at the people, in whom he had thrown his sister off to. And now he had lost her forever.</p>
<p>A flash of light interrupted his recollection when the subway arrived at the station. As the door opened and closed, a cold, sour wind blew in. A few people walked inside the empty compartment. One of them was a girl about his age, and she was coming toward him as if he was her target.</p>
<p>"Upperer? " She sat down next to Zuko and blew a soft wind in his ear.</p>
<p>Zuko got spooked.</p>
<p>The girl crossed her legs and looked askance at him. Taking in Zuko's gaze, she smiles triumphantly, deftly unzipping her jacket and draping it over her shoulder. Arms folded, moved, and embraced all the skins and flesh in those arms, slightly shaking. It was a signal for her friends, who were wearing the same frock, to jostled their way to Zuko. There were a girl with a pink bow and a poodle skirt and a girl with black nails and smoky make-ups.</p>
<p>"Ty Lee. " The pink skirt gave him a gentle nod, then pointed to the girl next to him, introducing themselves, "Mai. "</p>
<p>"Hel... Hello. " Zuko replied, but he could not look directly at the three of them at all. He could only stared at the graffiti and the reflection of his own face on the glass across the way. These three girls would not hurt him, but still, they were very intimidating. However, street girls growing up like this were taught every detailed service to start a business. Lesson number one would be how to break ice with a shy stranger man; there was no way they would let his silence call off the potential trade.</p>
<p>"You play baseball? " Their leader asked, raising her eyebrow at his jacket, then pointed at her shoulder jacket. "We like to play baseball, too. " But the jacket she was wearing was clearly not meant for sports. Blood-red Silk, heavily embroidered with Dragon and Phoenix Patterns, bright and beautiful, but also very vulgar.</p>
<p>"Yes... " He knew that these people had a way of hunting, one move after another, carefully designed to eat one up alive, and you could not tell there were how many moves. Their jackets must have been a ploy to sell themselves as high school girls, or to make small talk with people like him.</p>
<p>Ty Lee sat on the lead girl's lap, stretched himself out on top of her, buried her head in the other girl’s neck and muttered, "he's so boring. "</p>
<p>"Ty, be polite, " the lead girl claps Ty Lee's hand and, with a fake embarrassed frown, tells Zuko, "Don't blame her. Ty was the prettiest of us; normally high school boys like to hang around and flatter her. "</p>
<p>"How do you know I am in high school? " Zuko answered subconsciously.</p>
<p>The leader smiled impudently. "There are rebellious high school kids from Upper Ring who would take the subway here on weekends, looking for people...people like us. " she paused, raising her hand from Ty Lee's waist and landing in Zuko's lap, "But I've never seen one comes alone. "</p>
<p>She squinted at him. Her golden eyes flashing white were as sharp as an eagle over a snowy mountain. "Mai? " She pushed Ty Lee away and moved out a little, making half an empty seat between Zuko and herself, then gesturing for another girl to sit in the middle.</p>
<p>"This is Mai, as Ty just introduced, " she said, "And you? What's your name? "</p>
<p>An answer was all they need to the final victory; that’s something he had learned by the time he was fourteen. He kept his lips close tightly, but those girls did not seem in a hurry to pry his lips open. The leader winked at Mai.</p>
<p>"You disdain us, " Mai said. Her voice was very soft and perfectly flat, yet it reminded him of the hoarseness after long time’s wailing. Unlike the other girl, Mai didn't approach him specifically. She quietly threw off a sentence that didn't carry the sound of pretentious drool, which made him a little relaxed.</p>
<p>"I don't, " Zuko replied, blushing. "I don't know you. "</p>
<p>"You know us. " Ty Lee sat across from them, one foot on the banister; her skirt was slipping down her thigh to reveal a torn lace pantyhose. "Ty Lee, Mai. Ah, you don't know her yet. "</p>
<p>"He doesn't need to know, " Mai said, her voice unruffled, her eyes not looking at anyone. "A noble young master from the Upper Ring! Just looking at us is such a disgrace. " Her voice was high and cold, but her body was warm and cheerful. The lead girl didn't leave a lot of room when she moved away from Zuko, so Mai was sitting half on a bench, and the other half on Zuko's lap.</p>
<p>"But Azula said, " Ty Lee said to herself with an exaggerated sigh, "don't mess with a decent boy. "</p>
<p>Azula... was that her name? Zuko turned his head to the lead girl unconsciously and ran into her golden eyes. She was staring at him the whole time, like a hungry python watching a fat rabbit grazing in its burrow, like a blue fire, burning him down to pure coldness.</p>
<p>Mai caught his perversity as a victory, and an imperceptible smile appeared in her lips.</p>
<p>"Nor... Zuko, " he said softly. "My name is Zuko. "</p>
<p>"Azula. " The girl held out a hand to him, seemingly expecting him to take it and press a kiss. Zuko, of course, wouldn't do that. Up until now, he was the upstanding son of the Upper Ring.</p>
<p>"Nice to meet you, " Zuko replied.</p>
<p>And then it just kind of fell into place. The girls said that they played baseball for a nearby high school team (but apparently that was a lie) , and they liked making friends on the way home with people of same hobbies. Ty Lee was clearly not interested in their conversation; shortly after they arrived the next stop, two young gangsters accosted Ty Lee and took her away. Mai got bored too, made a phone call, respectfully said goodbye to Azula and left.</p>
<p>Zuko and Azula were the only two people left, sitting on an empty subway, talking about themselves. Zuko told her his life on the Upper Ring, his need for a father, and Azula nodded and in turn told him the violence in her family, under the influence of alcohol. She talked about how her father treated her, because of the runaway mother of hers, and to demonstrate her father’s movements, she held Zuko’s hand to her chest. </p>
<p>It was completely silly to open your heart to a stranger girl on the street, but there was something special about Azula. All one had to do was open their mouth and their deepest secrets reveal themselves.</p>
<p>For example, "I'd love to go with you. " Zuko leaned back. "thank you, sincerely, for offering me a place for tonight, " He paused, then whispered, "but I don't have any money. "</p>
<p>His embarrassment caused Azula’s roars of laughter. "Zuzu, " she said, her fingers gently swiping Zuko's face, and gave him his new nickname. "I'm not that kind of girl. "</p>
<p>"I could come back…… "</p>
<p>"Noren allows you to do this with pocket money? " Azula looked down at her body. "And you little bustard complains about your lack of fatherhood. "</p>
<p>Zuko didn’t say anything. He didn't know what to say.</p>
<p>"In a business like this, only one person actually has to pay, " Azula said, pretending to be looking at her cell phone, "It doesn't have to be you. Zuzu, wouldn't it be more reassuring for your mother if you had the money to go home and told her that you spent the night at your classmate's? "</p>
<p>Before Zuko could respond, she added: "It's solid, nobody would find out. Your friend, Sokka, isn't his sister in medical school? Let’s say, you were beaten, stripped, and taken home for the night. They won't suspect a thing. Lying is my second nature, so trust me."</p>
<p>Zuko knew what she's talking about.</p>
<p>"I promise it'll be quick, " Azula said, pressing his lips gently against his earlobe. "Won't this be fun? I'll have you on the Upper Ring in the morning; I would pay for the ticket. "</p>
<p>He should have run when he heard that, but he didn't. Zuko didn’t nod either, sighed slightly, and let Azula lead him to a dingy little room. Ty Lee got rid of the gang of punks, smoked a cigarette on the street out of boredom, and changed into a coquette face when she saw Azula approached. Luckily, Azula didn't have time to yell at her for not doing her job, and instead walked straight to her room in the corner.</p>
<p>Azula locked the door, threw his jacket aside and took off her top coherently before Zuko could react.</p>
<p>"Trust me, Zuzu, I'm a professional, " she said, pointing at a couch by the bed piled with tattered lace underwear. "Sit down. I'll fetch us something to drink. "</p>
<p>Zuko's eyes were fixed on her young body. She was wearing some clothes as she wasn't wearing any clothes, and he could tell she was in great shape. Her muscles were beautiful, and she had this amazing mermaid line that pointed right to the secret garden. But the lingerie she wore earlier was meant to be seductive (unbecoming, apparently). Her full breasts were pointed and red with rims, dancing as if at last they had been freed from shackles. Azula was only 16.</p>
<p>"Oolong? Jasmine? "</p>
<p>"Jas... Jasmine, " Zuko stammered.</p>
<p>Azula raised her eyebrow, opened the refrigerator, picked up two pieces of ice and threw them into a freshly filled glass.</p>
<p>"Here. " She handed over a heavy beer glass with a tall glass in her mouth.</p>
<p>Yellow fizzy whiskey in a beer glass.</p>
<p>"This is jasmine? " Zuko asked. It was an extremely stupid question as he knew himself, but his throat was burning so badly that he had to force himself to say something.</p>
<p>"The word ice means something else here, " she shrugged, raising her glass and greeting him, then drunk it up in one gulp, deliberately letting the bulk of the wine sliding down her lips, to her shallow clavicle groove. She licked his lips a little, not on purpose, just to scratch his lipstick a little.</p>
<p>Zuko turned his eyes away from her and tried to gulp down his drinks. He failed, and choked on the acid, coughed twice, and was caught in Azula's kiss. He felt her lips, smeared with lipstick, moving closer to the wine. He wondered how did they taste like and gave a bite.</p>
<p>"Gosh, " said Azula, "you're rude. "</p>
<p>"I'm sorry. " Zuko apologizes immediately, poured his glass and spilled his drinks on the floor. He was not the drinking type anyway.</p>
<p>"Well, " Azula chuckled, tilting his head. "You look down on my drinks. "</p>
<p>"No... Of course no. "</p>
<p>Azula, all warmed up, slightly turned her head, sweeping his shoulders, and then sat head-on in Zuko's laps. She lowered her head and, as she did when they first met, kissed him in the ear with a blisters and said, "prove it. "</p>
<p>If Zuko had any sense at all, he would know it's not worth it. For some reasons, she was fascinating -– there was a feeling he couldn’t to say no to, a feeling of youthful exuberance -- which made him feel like he wasn't awake at all. If he really wanted save this place, he should know about it, shouldn’t he? Well, since it was her invitation, and it was all legal here, it wouldn't be a scandal if he did it, would it? Even if mother knew about it, she wouldn't be disappointed if he followed what Azula had said, would she?</p>
<p>No, it was completely the opposite. Staying out of the swamp was necessary to save the place; the ordinary events of the Lower Ring were still criminal in the Upper Ring courts; and Azula was so young that her mother was more likely to be reminded of her past, and then broke down and blamed himself and yelled at him. Zuko's usual code of ethics should make him think that way. He had a lucid mind, a mind like a golden flower, until Azula burned them all. Like a lightning bolt on a rainy night that knocked down the mighty tree, Azula turned all of his Upper Ring qualities into charred wood on the ground, emitting a burning smell of smoke.</p>
<p>He was making excuses for himself, trying to rationalize his impulses. In any case, he succeeded in persuading himself to take Azula’s invitation, or her command. As thing stood at the time, he should be the one to take the initiative.</p>
<p>"I like you. " Azula bit his earlobe. "please like my... drinks. " She leaned over, her left shoulder pressing against his chest, fingers drawing a line down his waist.</p>
<p>She invited him to taste her own flesh. Freshly washed down with a hint of whiskey, the girl's body was like a march petal. And Zuko accepted her invitation, again. He drew closer, the tip of his nose touching her chin, let her lips to lightly touch his brow. Then his tongue picked up the smell from her neck, then her shoulders, then a few drops of wine on her collarbone.</p>
<p>Then she called it off.</p>
<p>Azula stood up and laughed wildly. She undid her hair. Zuko gets up and tries to hold her, but she pushes him back. She grabbed a few pieces of candy off a plate by the door, tossed some away, then striped off the wrapper of the rest, shoved them into her mouth, and then, just like before, rushed Zuko. But this time she had her chin in his lap. She thought it was time to get started. Her hands are on Zuko's belt, but Zuko leans down and kisses her on the forehead, disrupting her rhythm.</p>
<p>A kiss on the forehead turned into a fierce tangle of lips and teeth. Zuko held his hands awkwardly in the air, not knowing where to put it, unlike his tongue. More daring than he was, Azula unbuttoned his jacket, ripped his shirt from under it, and stroked the most sensitive spot on his chest.</p>
<p>I should have done the same, Zuko thought, so he put his arm around Azula's waist and climbed up the shallow waist. His hand on her shoulder. It became a hug.</p>
<p>"Zuzu... " Azula said with difficulty.</p>
<p>He was shocked because of himself, as well as of Azula. Azula took a breath from the boy who could not control himself, and immediately broke free from his arms and stood up. The messy sofa was not a decent place for their first time. She wanted the bed.</p>
<p>Azula jumped up on her bed and laid down. She rolled over the quilt, crossing her legs, pulled the side of the quilt over her body, and then threw her skirt and panties under the quilt. Her left hand was still clenched around one corner of the quilt, as if she was about to shout "Surprise! ". There was not any business. She was a gift for Zuko.</p>
<p>One, two, three, Azula said to himself.</p>
<p>As she expected, she would not be a free gift tonight. Zuko kneeled by the bed, held her calf, then removed her stocking. Azula's toes crawled from his hands to his face, then moved to his heart. It was a knee jerk reaction, and it was a little too daring for a good kid like Zuko. Luckily, she won.</p>
<p>After tossing Azula's stocking to the side, Zuko gently caressed her as he undressed both of them. He bristled at the awkward unbuttoning of his shirt until Azula’s face was pressed against his abdominal muscles. By now, he had the idea that Azula, the shadow ghost he could not escape, was now possessing him.</p>
<p>He was a little insane, searching every inch of Azula's body ,awkwardly but rather fervently. He was able to control some of his physical and mental responses, but most of them he could not. A strong teenager of seventeen could not be a blank page in situations like this; with instincts and some vague memories of what he read and saw, he rolled over and tried to break into Azula.</p>
<p>"Don't you remember me? "</p>
<p>Once again, it was abruptly interrupted by her.</p>
<p>"You're Zuko, " Azula said with another cheeky grin. "Son of Ursa and Ozai. Born... in the Lower Ring… " She paused. "I forget where we lived back then, brother. "</p>
<p>She waited until this moment to tell. To be honest, Zuko was not exactly that kind of model lover; she would not have much fun with him, but watching his eyes widen slightly, watching her the reflection in those golden eyes… There was no less ecstasy than a coitus climax.</p>
<p>Azula, of course, had it all figured out from the beginning. She was not the one hiding out on the Upper Ring with her mom, but the one left to rot in the Lower Ring with her psychotic father. Zuko could live a quiet life in peace, occasionally reminiscing about their good old days over her new sister's vivacity, but how could she? Every minute of her day, every moment of her life, every time of men coming in and out this bedroom, she was thinking about Zuko. Her hatred was so strong that she was always ready to spit in the good side of his face.</p>
<p>She saw Zuko on the subway early in the day, just as the subway was moving into the Lower Ring. His face and the scar were exactly as she imagined. She could save him, help him, play nice to sneak into his arms, even follow him to the Upper Ring. However, she only wanted to humiliate him; she wanted him to become typical of the Lower Ring, just like she was. Zuko wouldn’t been sleeping long; it was Azula that drugged him and stole his wallet, making he waddle all the way to the edge. Before they met officially, she had rehearsed the strategies of how to approach, talk to, and manipulate her girlfriends ten million times in case anything went wrong.</p>
<p>"I'm your sister, Zuzu, " Azula said with a wry smile. "You can’t forget me, can you? "</p>
<p>But that didn't stop Zuko at all. Azula thought that the boy in front of her, panting and whispering, would stop his movements all of a sudden as if he was hit by electric shock, but she was wrong. "I know, " he said, his voice husky, his lips pressing against Azula's face. Then he repeated, "I know. "</p>
<p>His left side of face brushed Azula's neck, rubbing the rough scar against her delicate skin. "I promise it'll be quick... " Zuko said in a gravellier voice than usual. "trust me... even I'm not a professional... "</p>
<p>Azula didn't see this coming and, honestly, she froze. Her skins that was being swiped by his scar was burning hurt and red, as if she had been set on fire. Behind the ears, neck, collarbone, and down.</p>
<p>She could have pushed him away, but she never considered it an option. Maybe she got too skilled and got used to play along with other people's tricks on her body, or maybe she didn't reject it at all and actually wanted Zuko to go on. Azula didn't push him away, no; Azula even held his face in her hands and gave him a passionate kiss. A passionate kiss, yes, as if to reclaim the past four years, more than one thousand, two hundred cursed days and nights in general. She seemed to be concentrating all of her awareness on her tongue, lips, and even her teeth, trying to taste what Zuko left not to say.</p>
<p>Azula was a strong girl, but not as strong as Zuko. Her hands were pressed against the wall, her legs subconsciously pulled back, but was violently separated. Zuko decided that the two of them would have to do, like Azula did on the subway. Things went his way this turn, step by step. Azula felt a warm current coursing through her abdomen, tensed her toes, and then closed her eyes as she embraced him into each other.</p>
<p>She saw her own face, or his, in the darkness. Because, after all, they were resembling siblings, in that silhouette so indiscernible and overlapping, only one of two people could be seen.</p>
<p>“Zuzu.”</p>
<p>That was the nickname she gave him, but it was something more. It suddenly occurred to her that it was also her name. What hatred she put in the name Zuzu, was it to curse Zuko's fall, or to call herself a whore?</p>
<p>"Hmmm... " Zuko said in a low voice as he pressed himself against her.</p>
<p>Azula continued to mumble these simple syllables, "Zuzu, Zuzu... " , and Zuko responded gently to each of them at their pace. At one point she stopped, moan uncontrollably, holding Zuko's body in her gasping embrace to freeze her flushed cheeks with the cold, thin sweat of his body. How did it matter if she was the owner of the name or he? At least for now, they were no different. It was the intimacy of their own choosing, outside of blood.</p>
<p>In order to make up for the missing days and nights, they gave up their sobriety and became one in the communion of their bodies.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thank you. </p>
<p>Visit my Tumblr page: @fullmoonbayferry. ( I don’t post anything, to be honest; I saw many writers linked their Tumblr page here and I’ve always wanted to do that.)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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